


Key Between

by thehiddendoctor



Series: Kingdom Hearts: Key Between [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Gen, Major Original Character(s), Multi, POV Alternating, POV Original Character, Post-Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-11
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-01 00:10:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2752289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thehiddendoctor/pseuds/thehiddendoctor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the events of Dream Drop Distance, Sora and the others have work to do before the final battle with Xehanort. Riku and King Mickey are going to go in search of previous Keyblade Wielders, while Sora, Donald, and Goofy look for a Key to Return Hearts. But, there is a new Keyblade Wielder, and they don't know which side he will take, or what he will do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Kai

**Author's Note:**

> I am not sure exactly how this will go, so I don't know what ships to put in, or basically a lot of things. I have a basic plot thought out, but not many details, I like to figure those out as I go. But, I promise to have no OCxCanon ships.

Chapter 1: Kai

 

“You mean I’m staying here?!” Lea yelled.  
Riku stood with his back against the wall, next to one of Master Yen Sid’s bookcases. They were planning their next move, and Lea was not happy with his. The king, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were there as well. Nobody else spoke though.  
Riku was not too fond of Lea. He understood that he was human again and was no longer part of Organization XIII, but there was still a lingering resentment. He also didn’t like his personality very much. He was grateful for his help, and he was glad that he could wield the Keyblade, but he was also glad that he would be staying and training with Master Yen Sid while he and King Mickey went searching for other Keyblade wielders.  
“Yes, you have not had the Keyblade long, and you still need training. Hopefully, we can find the other wielders quickly, and as many of you can become Masters as possible before Xehanort does any more damage,” Yen Sid explained.  
Lea did not look happy. He huffed, and went and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. “I save everybody and I can’t even go outside,” he lamented.  
“You didn’t save anyone!” Donald yelled. “You barely helped.”  
Riku could see the coming fight, Donald had started quite a few while they had been with Master Yen Sid, and Riku didn’t want to sit through another one. He quickly slipped out of the room. He started the long walk down the tower. It was mostly stairs, but the rooms were all different shapes and sizes along the way.   
Riku had learned, since he had been staying there, that the tower changed itself based on the intent of the person walking up or down the tower. When he was looking for his room, it was either two flights up from the bottom, or two flights down from the top, depending on where he started. Sora always complained that his was seven, but Riku didn’t understand that. The tower didn’t have seven flights of stairs, as far as he knew, but maybe it did if you were looking for something besides the top.  
Riku opened the door at the bottom of the tower to the small field surrounding the tower. He still didn’t understand how Master Yen Sid had created a world that could only be accessed by a train from a completely different world, but it kept them safe. The heartless were relatively easy to keep out, despite the large number of Keyblade Wielders that had gathered there.  
Riku walked over to the edge and sat down. He let one of his legs dangle over the edge, but kept his other planted on the ground while he reclined on his elbows. Sora had already learned that if you fell off the edge of this world, you would eventually fall into the open space between worlds. Sora had tested it by throwing a potion off the edge, it had later smashed on the windshield of the gummi ship.   
“Hey, Riku! Whatcha up to?” came the voice of the King.  
Riku stood up quickly out of respect for his friend.  
“I keep tellin’ ya, ya don’t hafta do that for me,” the King laughed as he sat next to where Riku had been.  
Riku sat back down next to King Mickey, but stayed sitting up this time. “I know,” he said simply.  
The two were silent for a while. It didn’t bother Riku, he was thinking about the people they had to go looking for. King Mickey had told him about Master Aqua and Ventus already. Nobody knew where Ventus was, but His Majesty thought Master Aqua might know. The problem was, he had reason to believe that Master Aqua might be in the Realm of Darkness.  
“Should we leave tomorrow?” Riku asked.  
The King looked over at him, surprised. “Whatta ya mean, Riku?”  
Riku hesitated, sorting out his thoughts before he spoke. “We need to find the Seven Guardians of Light before Xehanort can make his move. Shouldn’t we start searching as soon as possible?” Riku asked,  
“You can’t leave yet!”  
The voice surprised Riku and the King. They both turned to see Kairi walking out of the tower and down the steps. She walked to where they were sitting and sat down behind them, farther from the edge and in between the two of them.  
“Sora and I found a cave in Twilight Town we wanted to check out with you,” she said, adamantly.  
Riku couldn’t help but smile. Of course his friends would have something like that planned. Everyone was trying to figure out how to stop Master Xehanort, and Sora and Kairi still had time to plan for fun. He really appreciated them for things like that.  
“Okay,” Riku conceded. “We can do that tomorrow,” he told Kairi. He turned to the King and continued, “And, you and I can leave the day after.”  
King Mickey nodded. “Right!”

\----------------------------------------------

Kai sat in the courtyard of the abandoned mansion. He knew he wasn’t technically supposed to be there, but he had nothing else to do and nowhere else to go. And, nobody else in town ever went near the mansion, so it wasn’t like he was going to get caught.  
He didn’t like being at home, and he had no real friends around town. He did work at the accessory shop in the middle of town, and he was allowed to make whatever he wanted with the leftover metals. But, he was off today, and he didn’t like to bother Jessie, the shop owner. She was the same age as Kai, they were both twenty, but she was his boss, so it felt weird to talk to her when he wasn’t on duty.  
So, he sat in the courtyard alone. The broken statues and unkempt grass were all comforting somehow. It was relaxing to lay down and sit in silence, knowing that he’d be undisturbed. When it started to get dark, he would go home, hopefully he would be able to slip in and up to his room before any of his family members knew that he was there. He was hoping to get his own place soon, but he didn’t have the munny for the downpayment on the apartment that he liked yet. Two more months and he’d have enough. Then, he would be living on his own and he wouldn’t have to sneak through a hole in the town wall so he could hide amongst a bunch of decrepit statues to be in a relaxing place.  
Still, he liked the courtyard, and he was glad when, about a year before, the gate had been mysteriously unlocked. Before that, he had hung out in the forest, outside the courtyard. But, he prefered the inside. He had always looked in on it when he passed. Now, he looked into the mansion windows. He wanted to go inside, but the door was locked. Sneaking into a place he wasn’t allowed was very different from breaking and entering.  
He was a little worn out from practicing with his sword, so he let his eyes droop shut. He had made the sword himself at the accessory shop with leftover metals. It wasn’t very good, and it had taken him months to collect enough metal. He wasn’t very good at fighting with it, either, since he always practiced alone. He was okay in struggle battles, so he was decent with the sword, and getting better. But, he’d never even made it to the semi finals in struggle, so he knew he wasn’t great.  
Kai wasn’t concerned with any of that, he had never had any reason to fight anything. The Heartless hadn’t been a problem for a while, not that they were ever a huge one to begin with. Even so, he had made himself a necklace that would, hopefully, magically enhance his reflexes a bit, if he ever did get into a fight. So, all things considered, he wasn’t the slightest bit worried about his lack of fighting ability.  
Voices broke Kai from his thoughts. Nobody ever really came into the forest, besides him, so it was really a surprise to hear anything at all.  
Kai peeked around the courtyard’s gate and saw three people passing by the mansion, headed deeper into the forest. One was taller than the others, probably about Kai’s height, with silver hair that almost reached his shoulders, wearing a pair of jeans and a vest. The next tallest had brown, spiky hair, and wore a complicated looking grey and black outfit, consisting of shorts and a hooded t-shirt. The third person was a girl, and shorter than the others by a lot, she had red hair that reached her shoulders and was wearing a pink dress.  
The shorter two seemed excited and hyper, the taller one seemed just as happy as the others, but much more calm, like an adult taking care of two children.  
Kai normally would have ignored them and went to lay down again and forgotten about them as soon as he was sure they weren’t coming toward the mansion, but a few seconds after they passed, Kai froze in fear.  
Dozens of Heartless started slowly pulling themselves out of the ground.  
Kai felt his stomach drop and his heart skip a beat. Some of them were the ones he had seen before, like giant ants with rounded heads and antennae that wiggled seemingly randomly. Those were terrifying as it was, but a couple of the things that appeared were much more complex, and Kai assumed that meant stronger. They were like little people, they were helmets and little suits with a heart with a red X on it that covered most of their torsos.  
Kai ran, nearly falling over twice, to where he had left his sword on the ground. He realized that not picking it up when he heard voices was the most stupid thing that he could have done, but he couldn’t fix it now.  
He finally got back to where he had been lying on the ground, and grabbed his sword. It was crude, a simple pommel and a small handguard, the blade was a little thicker than he would have liked, and it had no ornamentation at all, all of it was plain silver. He knew it wasn’t the best weapon in the world, but he never imagined he might actually have to fight Heartless with it.  
He ran back to the gate, his sword gripped tightly in his hand, and shaking slightly with his nervousness. When he got to the gate, he was ready to defend himself for his life, but he didn’t need to.  
Every single time he had ever seen the Heartless, they had always attacked every person in the area, like they could sense where people were, even if they were hiding. These paid no attention to him, and all of them, Kai counted around forty, headed into the forest, in the same direction the three people had been headed before.  
Kai hesitated. The heartless were all headed into the forest, which meant that the hole in the wall that would give him access back into the town would be free. He could have easily run away to safety. He would survive. He might even be able to find help for the other three in time.  
But, all the Heartless seemed to be focused on those three for some reason, so they might attack more quickly than usual. And, it was a lot of Heartless. There were only three of them. Kai didn’t think any three people alive could survive that many Heartless at once, let alone escape them.  
Kai groaned internally. “These assholes better be worth it,” Kai mumbled to himself. He took a breath to steel himself, and started after the Heartless.  
He knew he probably wasn’t going to be doing anything heroic, but at the very least he could try to give the other three some warning and time to run away. But, he wasn’t going to die for these people. The Heartless were more interested in them anyway, if he didn’t think it was working out, he would probably be able to run away pretty easily.  
It didn’t take him long to catch up to the Heartless, they were pretty slow, and they were following three people going through a leisurely stroll through the forest, they weren’t going very fast, either.  
When Kai was close enough, he tried to think of a plan. The Heartless were too far away from the other three to attack anyone just yet. Kai could always yell to them, they could all run away, and maybe the Heartless would be too slow. That would call a lot of attention to him, though, at that point he might have to fight, anyway.  
If he was going to fight, he wanted an advantage, otherwise he would probably die. Maybe if he snuck up on them and took out a few at the back, and then yelled warning, the Heartless would be a few less in number and outrunning them wouldn’t be as hard.  
He decided that would be the best plan and crept up on them, which was surprisingly easy. They didn’t seem to care about him at all, they were too focused on the other three, he guessed.   
When Kai was close enough, he brought down his sword on one of the ant-like Heartless. He was hoping that the attack would kill it and he could move on to another. It did not work out that way. He had made a huge mistake.  
His sword was clearly not a good enough weapon, being handmade and rough. Not only was the Heartless not destroyed, it looked like it hadn’t been harmed by the attack at all. He was sure he had made contact, he had felt his sword make contact with the squishy flesh of the Heartless, but apparently the being of darkness was too sturdy for the blade. Which, was a little confusing, since it felt to Kai like it had had the consistency of gelatin.   
Kai became positive that he had no chance at survival when the entire hoard of Heartless turned toward him, after his failed assault. He had just given his life for three people he didn’t know. His heart jumped into his throat and his stomach dropped out of him, yet somehow still seemed capable of tying itself into a knot.  
Kai looked toward the three people, hoping they had noticed all this and were fleeing for their lives, so at least he didn’t die in vain, that would be annoying. They still hadn’t noticed him or the Heartless at all. He had forgotten to yell warning to them.  
Whoops.  
“Run, you idiots!” Kai yelled.  
The Heartless didn’t seem to like his voice. As he yelled, about five of the little ant-things leapt at him. Kai panicked and his body acted on its own. He brought his sword up to bat away the nearest one as he stumbled backward away from the rest. The Heartless that he hit wasn’t destroyed, like he’d been hoping would happen, but he was pretty sure that he had at least hurt that one. He was just happy he had dodged the other four.  
The people, Kai noticed dimly, were all running toward the group of Heartless, not away like they were supposed to. He didn’t know where they had been keeping them, but all three of them were now equipped with swords.  
Kai cursed. Now all of them were going to die, instead of just him. But, on the bright side, when they approached, most of the Heartless turned away from Kai and headed toward them, leaving a much smaller number for him.  
He didn’t have his full mind about him, so he couldn’t count his attackers, but he had a vague feeling it was somewhere around five. Another one jumped at him, and he batted it away. This time he swung much harder, stepped forward into the swing, and threw his arm forward as hard as he could. This time, the sword cut into the Heartless and sliced all the way through.  
The Heartless burst into a puff of black smoke that quickly dissipated into nothing. Kair was surprised and proud, he had never killed a Heartless before. He had seen adults do it, usually from the safety of his second story window, and never much closer up than that.  
His pride only lasted for about half a second, and then claws ripped into his side. He let out a cry of pain and cursed. The pain was more intense than anything he had ever felt before. Of course, he had never been ripped open by a Heartless before, so that was probably why. He felt the blood already trickling out of the wound, and he knew his shirt would be forever useless after this.  
He turned and brought his sword down on the Heartless that had attacked him. He swung as hard as he could, as he did, he threw his left arm back so that the momentum would balance. To his glee, it worked. He stayed upright, and the sword cut into the Heartless, this one also burst into a cloud of black smoke and then quickly disappeared. Kai was thrilled and astounded by his natural fighting ability.  
At least, until the claws dug into his back and ripped him open. He was pretty sure the scratch dug all the way into the back of his ribs. He swore he could feel the claws scraping against the bone.  
That was all Kai could handle, he fell to his knees. The pain erased everything else, and sapped all his strength. He felt his blood leaking out of the new wound and down his back, much quicker than the first. He knew there were Heartless around him, he couldn’t fight anymore, and he had no chance. He let his body fall to the ground, and resigned to die as his head hit to cold soft grass.  
He felt a wave of frigid cold wash over him almost immediately. That had to be death, he was certain that he had died, but he was in too much pain to open his eyes to check. He was pretty sure he didn’t want to know anyway. Then, all at once, his body warmed and the pain slowly seeped away until there was nothing. No pain, no cold, just the blackness of the backs of his eyelids. He supposed that wasn’t true anymore, it was another blackness, not that it mattered. He was dead, what did anything matter anymore?


	2. Dive

Chapter 2: Dive

 

Kai felt a hand on his arm and his eyes shot open. He was alive. He was still in the forest. He was lying on the ground with the girl that he had seen before kneeling next to him. He noticed that she was a lot prettier up close.  
“Are you okay?” the girl asked, her voice showed her concern.  
Kair rolled over onto his back and sat up. “What happened?” he asked.  
He reached around to feel his back where the claws had dug in, there was dried blood all around the tears in his shirt, but his skin was unbroken. He felt his side, where he had been wounded first, that too was covered in his blood, but he had no wound.  
“You were attacked by the Heartless,” the guy with the brown hair said as he and the other guy walked up.  
Kair rolled his eyes and stood up. He didn’t like looking weak, and was rather upset that he had collapsed to the ground while the other three were perfectly fine.  
“I got that,” Kai said while the girl stood up and her friends approached. “I meant, ‘why am I not dead?’”  
“Sora fought off the Heartless, Kairi healed you,” the silver haired guy explained simply.  
Kai guessed that Kairi was the girl and Sora was the guy with the brown hair. Kai noticed, now that they were all standing together, that their heights were a bit different than he had thought. He himself was five foot seven, the silver haired guy was about an inch taller than him. Sora was about two inches shorter than Kai, but his spiky hair evened the distance, so the top of his hair was even with Kai’s height. Kairi had to be at least half a foot shorter than Kai.  
He said a quick thanks to Kairi and Sora for their help, and then to get the subject off of his near death, he pointed to the sword that Sora was still holding. “What are those?”   
Up close, he realized that they were all key shaped. Sora’s was very clearly a giant silver key with a yellow hand guard. Kairi’s was the same basic shape, but it looked much more flowery. The silver haired guy’s sword didn’t look the same as the others at all, it was more blade-like, and reminded Kai of a dragon wing. Except, near the top it had a feathery wing coming off of it, that had to be the key part of his. And, the hand guard was feathery on one side and dragon like on the other.  
Kai guessed that, despite the different appearances, even the dragon one’s vast difference, they were the same weapon.   
“They’re Keyb-” Sora started to answer.  
“Sora!” Kairi interrupted. She blushed a little when everyone looked at her, but continued anyway, “You can’t.”  
“Oh, right.” Sora looked embarrassed and scratched his cheek.  
Kai didn’t like not knowing things, and he especially hated having secrets kept from him. He understood they didn’t owe him anything, in fact he owed them his life, but that didn’t make it bother him any less.   
“Fine,” Kai glared at Kairi briefly, but she didn’t seem to notice. “Then, maybe you can explain why the Heartless were following you?”  
“How do you know about the Heartless?” Sora asked, surprised.   
Kai tried not to be too mean while answering. He could tell Sora was nice, but he clearly wasn’t the brightest. “They have showed up in Twilight Town for a long time, why wouldn’t I know what they are?”  
“Why would you chase after them if you knew what Heartless were?” the silver haired guy asked.  
Kai gave a sarcastic smile and tried not to glare at the guy, “Well, if I had known that you could take care of them yourselves, I wouldn’t have. I thought I’d try to help.”  
Before anyone else could speak, a large crashing sound rang through the forest. Whatever it was, it hit the ground hard enough to shake the ground, even as far away as they were.  
At first, the the three of them reacted just like Kai, they all froze and looked in the direction of the noise. Then, they all reacted the same as each other, psychotically.  
“Come on,” Sora said, and all three of them started running toward the source of the noise.   
“Whoa, wait!” Kai exclaimed. He wasn’t ready to let them leave yet. He had more questions, they couldn’t just run off.   
He reached out and grabbed for the silver haired guy’s wrist, but he misjudged how fast the guy was moving and instead grabbed the handle of the guys sword, part of his hand clasped on the the guys hand, and Kai’s heart jumped.  
“You can’t just leave,” Kai yelled, ignoring the fluttering in his stomach.  
The guy stopped running as soon as Kai grabbed his sword. He didn’t make any move to remove Kai’s hand, or react aggressively, but the stern angry look the he gave Kai almost made him release his grip.  
“We need to find out what that noise was,” the guy explained, his face still fierce.  
Kai, while no less afraid of the guy, could not help but be attracted to the guy. He usually didn’t like guys taller than him, and this guy had about an inch on him. He seemed to be an exception to that rule.  
“Why?” Kai asked, forcing himself to ignore his attraction.   
He couldn’t imagine why these people would think they had any responsibility toward a crashing sound, or what they thought they could do about it.  
“Because, it’s what’s right.”  
“Riku, come on!” Sora’s voice yelled from up ahead. Kai couldn’t see him through the trees, but he didn’t sound too far away. He wouldn’t look away from the guy’s, Riku’s eyes. Their eyes were locked, and neither of them would look away.  
“I need to go,” Riku told Kai.   
Kai was annoyed. Of course he did, did this guy think he could hear Sora any better than Kai? Still, he didn’t want to let Riku go, he still had questions. Riku, however was growing more and more angry, by the look on his face. Kai knew he couldn’t take the guy.  
“Fine, I’m coming, too,” Kai insisted.  
“Fine,” Riku allowed.  
Kai immediately regretted his decision to follow. Riku wasn’t much taller than he was, but he was a lot faster. Kai was nearly running to keep up with Riku’s jog and was winded before they reached the town’s wall. They had caught up with Sora and Kairi quickly, and they all seemed as fast and in shape as Riku.  
They all raced through the hole in the wall to the inside of the town. Inside the town was the tram’s tracks, a few buildings, and a road, but it was mostly just a road to get to and from different parts of the town. It was the most convenient place for a hole in the town’s wall, otherwise it would’ve been fixed long before.  
It was also the most terrifying place to run into town to, at that moment.  
Kai assumed it had to be another Heartless, but he had never seen anything like it before. The thing was the size of a building, and had a huge hole in its torso in the shape of a heart. It’s head was covered in hair-like tendrils that hid its face.  
“The hell is that?” Kai yelled, so scared he nearly fell over.  
The other three didn’t answer. They all raced toward the thing. Sora hacked and slashed at it aggressively, but didn’t look like he thought anything out before he did it. His style was a lot like Kai’s, rough and fierce. Riku’s was more skilled, more lithe, he slipped between the giant hands of the thing attacking him and then attacked with several hard fierce strikes before the thing could move again. Kairi’s style was completely different from the others. She stayed farther away from the thing, dodged the hands when they were close, and shot balls of fire and sprays of ice at the thing from afar.  
Kai hesitated a lot longer than he was proud of. They attacked the thing for nearly thirty seconds before Kai realized that he had a sword in his hands. He knew that he should be fighting the thing, too, but he hadn’t done very well against Heartless a third his size, what was he going to do against that thing? Did he want to do “what’s right”? He could always just sit back and wait, right? They’d totally be able to take care of it. Right?  
That was when the thing fell to its knees and a ball of Darkness formed in the heart shaped hole in its chest. Sora kept attacking its hands, Kairi slowed her casting down and focused on the thing’s chest. Riku, however jumped back and held his sword horizontal at about eye level, staring straight at the thing’s chest.  
Kai was worried, but he wasn’t as worried as he should have been, he realized. The ball of Darkness exploded, shooting forth a bunch of dark lights that divided and shot toward Sora, Riku, and Kairi. Except three that shot toward Kai.  
He didn’t know what he was supposed to do. They shot toward him at the same speed but spread out, he knew that he’d be able to take care of them if he knew how.  
Sora and Riku knocked them away, Kairi pointed her sword at the oncoming attack and a square block of ice appeared a bit in front of it, and all three of the lights hit it, the third one breaking it, but she was completely safe.  
Kai knew that he couldn’t do those things. He tried to run out of the way of them, but they followed him like heat seeking missiles. But, he did notice that they were slow in their responses. When they were a lot closer, he ran to one side, causing it to crash into the ground. The second one was a lot harder to dodge, but Kai did it just in time. He didn’t have enough time to dodge the third.   
It hit him directly in the center of the chest. It hurt more than anything Kai could have ever imagined, but that wasn’t the worst part. It knocked him backward, and he slammed his head into the outer wall of the town.

 

Kai could feel himself falling. It was slow, like he was floating down through water, but he was dry and could feel the air flowing up passed him. Everything around him was dark, there didn’t seem to be a single source of light at all, but he could still see.  
He wasn’t falling long before he saw a platform below him. He turned, from falling headfirst to falling feet first. He lightly landed on his feet. He didn’t need the light that shown up through the platform, but the light was pleasant. The platform beneath his feet was rather impressive, too. It was stained glass, and it filled the circular platform, making a beautiful picture. It was hard to tell at first, but Kai realized that the main focus of the picture it made was Sora.  
Kai didn’t know where he was, but seeing Sora in the platform startled him a bit. Still, the place didn’t seem very threatening. He felt at peace, like he had only good outcomes in this place. He had always thought of his life as an empty abyss of depression and darkness, so it was quite a change.  
Then, the platform shook just the tiniest bit. In front of Kai, a pedestal grew out of the ground. It didn’t disrupt the platform at all, it was like it was moving through a bubble, and not the solid stained glass that Kai was standing on. Above the pedestal appeared a sword, it burst into existence in a brief flash of light. Then, to Kai’s right, another pedestal grew out of the ground, a staff appeared over the pedestal. Equidistant from the first two pedestals, another grew to Kai’s left, this one with a shield.  
A disembodied voice spoke, Kai couldn’t tell if it was in his head, or if it was all around him, either way, it didn’t seem to have volume, just words. “Your story begins. You must choose the path you will take. And the form you will choose. Choose well.”  
He jumped, not knowing where the voice was coming from. He was surprised, and barely registered what had been said. Kai didn’t understand what that was supposed to mean at all. “What the hell is that?” Kai yelled into the abyss, he turned around, frantically searching for the source of the voice, hoping it wasn’t inside his head. “What am I supposed to do?”  
Kai got no response from the voice. This frustrated him, and he walked in a circle around the platform, avoiding the pedestals. There didn’t seem to be anything around the platform, but it looked like the platform was actually a pillar. Looking over the edge, he saw the side of it extend down into the darkness until it was too far away.  
“I guess… I pick one of these things?” Kai mumbled to himself. “But, what the fuck… were they clues?” Kai hadn’t really been focusing on the words, but on the voice itself, but he tried his hardest. “My story begins, then choosing my path and form, or something, right?”  
Kai looked around at the three objects. A sword, a shield, and a staff. His mind went to the three people he had just met. Kairi fought with magic, and stayed away from the battle for the most part. Sora fought head on, but probably couldn’t take too many hits. Riku fought hard, but he didn’t seem to use magic at all. Were those the three paths? Or were Sora and Riku on the same one? Magic, straight forward attack, what would the shield be? Defense? Avoiding attacks? Protection?  
Any way that he thought about it, the shield seemed to be the most important one. What good was strength if you got knocked out after one hit? Magic seemed pretty good on it’s own, but he imagined Kairi wouldn’t do so well on her own, it was probably very helpful to have Sora and Riku to fight with her.  
Kai crossed the platform and grabbed onto the shield. As soon as he gripped it, it stopped floating and fell. Kai wasn’t strong enough to hold it up with one hand, so it hit the pedestal hard. Kai expected a loud and resounding clang of metal against stone, but there was no sound. Not until the voice spoke again, and even then, it wasn’t really sound.  
“Is this the power you seek?”  
Kai hesitated. It didn’t really seem like he could go too many ways on this. “Yes?” he answered uncertainly.  
The shield became weightless again, but this time disappeared in a flash of light.  
“Now, what will you give up in exchange?”  
“The fuck is that?” Kai yelled. “I don’t even know what I’m doing, but I have to give something up?” He demanded from the voice. He still got no answer.  
He angrily jumped up and sat on the pedestal that had previously held the shield. He looked back and forth between the two items left. There was still a sword and a staff. The power that Kairi used and the power that Riku used.   
Kai thought that he understood now. Whatever was happening to him must have happened to the three of them.   
Kairi chose the staff, then the sword. Since she had given up the fighting power, she used mostly magic, but she had fought with her sword when it was just the smaller Heartless. She could still fight, but her magic was her strongest asset. Riku must have chosen the sword, and given up the staff. He relied on power a lot, but he was better at avoiding the attacks, and taking them when they hit than Sora. Sora must have chosen the sword and given up the shield. Sora’s magic would be between Kairi’s and Riku’s. But, his strength was clearly less than Riku’s, so was his fighting ability, but there was no way Sora hadn’t chosen the sword.  
Whatever Kai was doing, it wasn’t deciding how great he could be, or how strong these three things were going to be. There was obviously personal skill involved, personal choices. He just seemed to be choosing something else, natural ability or something. Since his first choice had been the shield, he was choosing to have his ability to withstand fighting, or to last in a fight, or something like it, to be his greatest asset, like Kairi’s magic. So, what he had to choose now was if he wanted weaker magic, like Riku, or weaker fighting ability, like Kairi.  
He considered it a moment, and decided that he could always work on his magic ability, strengthen that slowly to get better, but in the mean time, he would like to be able to hold his own in a fight.  
He slid off the pedestal he was sitting on and walked over to the staff. Again, when he grabbed it, it gained weight, but it was a lot lighter than the shield, and Kai was ready for it this time, so it didn’t hit the pedestal.  
The voice sounded, “You give up this power?”  
“Yes,” Kai answered, with more conviction this time.  
The staff disappeared, but unlike the shield, it wasn’t in a flash of light. The staff disappeared with the same kind of light, but it was more like in disappeared in on itself, being destroyed as it disappeared.  
Kai didn’t have too much time to consider that, because the pedestals all caved into the platform less than a second after the staff disappeared. Kai felt the platform shaking for a few more seconds, he stared around frantically, wishing there was something else he could do, but he had already looked all over for something besides the platform and nothing existed.  
Then, the platform shattered. Every pane of glass separated from each other, and each of those broke into several pieces. Even though he swore he had seen a pillar holding up the platform before, Kai saw that there was nothing beneath him when it shattered. He was sure he was going to die, and his heart seemed to stop for a second after the ground beneath him gave way.  
It took him a few seconds to realize, but as he started falling, it occurred to him that he was falling slowly again, just like before he landed on the platform, like he was falling through liquid air. He floated safely down to another platform, just like the first, but this one depicted Kairi where Sora had been on the previous one.  
The voice didn’t waste any time, it started speaking almost the second he landed.  
“You must protect the balance. Choose one side or both. But, the balance is your duty.”  
Kai was about to ask it what it meant, but something moved inside him and then he felt like his body was being ripped apart. The pain was so intense it blocked out everything else. He didn’t know how or when, but he had fallen to his hands and knees. He was panting, and his throat hurt like he had been screaming, but he didn’t remember doing so. He stood up on slightly shaky legs, and saw two figures walking away from him in opposite directions. One was glowing yellow and was completely white, the other was black as the darkness around the platform and glowing with a dark light.  
Kai was near the edge of the platform, these two figures walked to opposite side of the platform and then turned and faced each other. They were directly in the center and facing each other, so there was exactly half a circle on either side of them, Kai stood near the edge of one of those half circles.  
But, the important part was, when they turned, Kai could see what they looked like. Except for their singular color and their glowing ability, they looked exactly like Kai.  
“What the fuck is going on here?” Kai screamed, he couldn’t understand what was going on at all. What were those things? Was the pain because they had walked out of him? What was going on?  
“Half Darkness. Half Light. You must fight to protect the balance.”  
As soon as the voice finished speaking, the two figures turned toward Kai. They both had swords appear in their hands in flashes of light the same color as the light coming off of them. The white one held a white sword that had no middle to the blade, and it had a slowflake shaped part near the end that was colorful. The black one held a black sword that looked like it’s blade was made out of a chain and it had a blocky, blade like square near its top. They were both swords just like the swords Sora, Riku, and Kairi had.  
The two figures charged toward him. He took a step backward and nearly stepped over the edge of the platform. They were coming at him with swords, and he had no weapon. He felt like he was having a heart attack, up until the second they both reached him and pulled back to swing.  
Kai did the only thing that he could think of and dove underneath their raised arms. He rolled over his shoulder and landed flat on his back, but he had dodged both the blades. He went to stand and realized that his hand was clenched on something. He looked down to see that he was holding a sword, too.  
His looked different than all the ones he had seen before. His blade curved back a little, and the part that would be the teeth of the key was made out of black and white alternating spikes. The blade was white, the handguard black with spikes coming off of it, and the handle was checkered black and white. The weapon itself seemed to be conflicted. It half felt like it was trying to tear itself apart to separate the black and the white parts, but it also felt like it should be melded together the way it was.  
Kai didn’t have time to consider the new weapon too deeply. He gripped it tightly in one hand and used it to help him stand up faster. He turned in time to see the white version of him rushing him. He sidestepped, and slashed backward at his doppelganger, his sword slamming into the other version of himself and knocking the thing several feet. That gave Kai enough time to bring the weapon back up and block the black sword from hitting him.   
Kai was thankful he had always practiced using the sword one handed, it allowed him to grab the hilt of the other sword, and kick the feet out from underneath the black version of himself.  
The black Kai fell to the ground, wrenching his hand away from the sword that Kai still had ahold of. Kai thought that he would be at a huge advantage with two swords, but something went wrong.  
As soon as the black Kai’s gripped released from the second sword, both of the swords became unbelievably heavy. They dragged Kai down, pulling him flat on the ground, causing him to slam his nose into the ground, painfully.  
Kai couldn’t figure out what had happened. He pushed himself to his knees and tried to lift the swords, but neither would budge. He let go of the black one to try to lift the one he had had first, and it lifted as easily as the first time he had tried to pick it up. He didn’t understand why, but he could only use one at a time.  
He figured this out just in time, because the white Kai brought down the white sword just as Kai picked up his. He didn’t have enough time to block it, so he dove out of the way. He rolled on his side this time, and stood up as quickly as he could.  
The white Kai was still coming at him. Kai knocked the sword away from the first attack, dodged a downward swipe, and slammed his sword into the stomach of the white Kai. He had no idea where this ease with the sword and combat knowledge had come from, all he knew was that he had it, and it was saving his life.  
Kai turned to slam his sword into the white Kai’s back, but his sword hit nothing. The white Kai wasn’t there anymore. Kai turned to see the the black one was gone too. And, the platform had changed. Kairi’s image had been replaced with Riku’s.  
And, at the opposite side of the platform, there was a set of large double doors in a door frame. Kai didn’t want to waste any time, this time. He was learning that he didn’t have a lot of time to waste in this place.  
He ran across the room and grabbed one of the door handles with his free left hand and tugged the door open.


	3. Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (( Sorry it's so short after nearly a week between chapters, I had a lot going on, and I still have more going on soon, but I'll do my best to try to get more up soon))

Chapter 3: Start

 

Kairi knelt next to the boy. They had defeated the Darkside, but sometime during the fight, the boy had gotten hurt. He was still unconscious, even though she had healed him twice.  
Sora was standing next to them, but Riku was a little farther away, standing still and looking very worried. Kairi hadn’t noticed until then just how worried he looked, she didn’t like it.  
“Riku, do you think he’s okay?” Kairi asked, hoping for a good answer.  
“He’s been attacked by Heartless a lot today, probably for the first time in his life. He’ll be fine, it just might be a while before he wakes up. I’m more worried about the Heartless.”  
Kairi and Sora looked at each other, neither of them understood. Then, they looked back at Riku, and he continued.  
“A Darkside, right after an entire hoard of Heartless. That doesn’t seem weird to you?”  
“Should it?” Sora asked.  
“Things like that shouldn’t be happening. Why so many Heartless? Why here? Why now?”  
“Has anyone ever sealed the Keyhole in Twilight Town?” Kairi asked. Unless someone was trying to use the Heartless to take over the town, that was the only reason she could think of.  
Riku nodded. “That would explain it. We should talk to Master Yen Sid and the King.”  
Sora looked down at the boy on the ground. “We can’t leave him here,” he argued.  
Riku sighed. “I could take the train to the tower. I would be back in a couple hours, he should wake up by then.”  
Sora nodded. “We can watch him until you get back,” Sora agreed.  
Riku nodded, said he’d hurry back, and then headed away. Sora sat down next to Kairi and they both looked at the sleeping boy in front of them. They didn’t even know his name. He had tried to help them fight the Darkside, and he might die because of it.  
Sora’s leg brushed against Kairi’s. Where their skin touched, Kairi felt fire. The good kind. Her stomach fluttered and she felt herself blush. They had been getting older and these things had been happening more and more. Kairi wanted to act on it, but Sora wasn’t the kind. She had breached the subject a couple times, and she had even kissed him once, but he got too nervous for anything else to happen. If he would just make a move once…  
The boy in front of them finally moved. He opened his eyes slowly. He immediately tried to sit up, then glared at her and Sora as soon as he saw them. He stood up quickly, like he didn’t want to be on the ground any longer than necessary.  
Kairi and Sora also stood. Kairi didn’t understand why this boy would act like this, they had helped him, why did he look angry.  
“How are ya feeling?” Sora asked.  
“I’m fine,” the boy said simply.  
“That’s good,” Sora replied awkwardly. They clearly felt the same about the boy’s shortness with them.  
“I’m Kairi,” she jumped in. “This is Sora.”  
“My name is Kai.”  
“Just like Kairi!” Sora said happily.  
Kai glared at him, more viciously this time, like he couldn’t stand the comparison. Kairi felt something then. It was a sense she got around Riku, Sora, the king, and Lea. It was like a power pulsed through the air coming from the people. It always got stronger right before they summoned their Keyblades. Did this boy have a Keyblade? Why didn’t he use it to fight the Heartless?  
“It’s short for Malachi. I spell it differently because C-H-I is never pronounced correctly.”  
“Okay, well, are you okay?” Sora asked, clearly trying to defuse the tension.  
“Yeah,” Kai answered, uncertainly. “Just had a… weird dream.” Kai looked down at his hand and clenched it, as if waiting for something to happen.  
“Did you have the dream?” Kairi shouted. She hadn’t meant to, but she thought she had figured out why she sensed what she did.  
Kai looked at her with a blank face, he was hiding his reaction. “I just said I had a dream,” he answered sarcastically, “you’ll have to be more specific if you’re asking about one in particular.”  
Kairi ignored his sarcasm, that just seemed to be his personality, he probably didn’t mean anything by it. “The one with the staff and the sword!”  
Just for a second, she saw his eyes widen just a bit. But, when she blinked it was gone. He was hiding it, why didn’t he want her to know. “Sorry, no, different dream.”  
“You had that dream, too? That means you can summon the Keyblade!” Sora exclaimed.  
“Look,” Kai said firmly, “I have to go, not that this wasn’t fun and all.” He turned and walked away rather briskly.  
“I hope he’s okay,” Sora said, his voice concerned.  
Kairi smiled. She couldn’t help but love how Sora saw people. She knew that Kai wasn’t all bad, but what he had just done was rude. Riku would have reacted with anger, maybe feigned indifference. Sora was concerned for his wellbeing. It was so cute, and Sora was so amazing.  
Kairi felt her chest tighten, her face grew hot, and her stomach was flipping over violently. She reached out and took Sora’s hand. He looked confused, and then he looked at Kairi’s face and flushed. She wondered if something might actually happen this time.  
She pulled his hand and he stumbled forward, like he had forgotten to use his feet. She pressed her lips against his, then let her whole body slowly press against him, fitting like a puzzle piece, just like every other time. But, this time, as hesitant as he was, Sora responded. His hands went to the small of her back and held her tighter against him.

 

Kai didn’t know where to go after leaving the two, but he did hurry away quickly enough to be able to see Riku slip around a corner. Kai had nowhere to go, so he decided that he would have no choice but to follow him.  
Kai hurried to catch up, but made sure he wasn’t close enough for Riku to notice him. At least, he thought so.  
Riku walked around a corner of a building, Kai hurried to follow him. Kai thought he was doing so well at hiding, until he got around the corner and Riku was standing just a few feet passed the corner, arms crossed, and glaring eyes.  
Kai’s heart skipped into his throat and he gasped involuntarily. He realized how stupid he must have looked and stood up straight and tried to make his face blank. “Funny, running into you here.”  
Riku did not look amused. “Why were you following me?” he asked.  
Kai didn’t think ‘I had nothing else to do’ would be the best answer. “You said you wouldn’t leave.” Kai remembered.  
Riku sighed. “Fine, what else did you want to ask?”  
Kai didn’t know how long Riku would be willing to suffer through him. He hurried through his mind for what could possibly be the most important thing.  
“What did you choose in the dream?”  
Kai asked the question, but immediately regretted it. How stupid could he possibly be? What did that matter? He didn’t even really care. It might have helped him before he made his choices, but it was all too late now.  
“What dream?” Riku asked, his voice gave something away. Curiousity? No, there was purpose to it, Kai just couldn’t place what it was.  
Kai sighed in resignation. He really wanted to change his question, but it was too late, he berated himself mentally for being so useless, but didn’t let him face show how he felt.  
“The dream. Kairi said she had it, too. I figured you all did. The one where… lots of darkness surrounding pillars, and the pillars hold up platforms. There’s the sword, shield, and staff hovering over pedestals. What did you choose?”  
“You did the dive into the heart…” Riku mumbled, Kai figured it was more to himself than anything. There was a few seconds silence, before, “I need to take you to see Master Yen Sid.”  
“Who?” Kai asked immediately. He didn’t really want to be taken anywhere.  
“I’ll answer whatever questions you want along the way.”  
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” Kai refused.  
Riku paused, it didn’t seem that he had expected a refusal. It seemed that he had been spending too much time with people that were either way too trusting, or very afraid of him. Sora seemed to be very trusting, Kai assumed that had to be it.  
“Fine, then I’ll be back. Will you wait for me?” Riku asked. He made it sound really important.  
“Yeah, fine. But, you’d better come back, I have more questions.”  
Riku nodded, he seemed like he really had a stick up his ass most of the time.  
“Wait for me in the forest where we met,” he told Kai. Without waiting for a response, he turned and raced away again, even faster this time than before.


	4. Beginning

Chapter 4: Beginning

 

Riku rode the train to Master Yen Sid’s tower in silence. He was the only one aboard, so he had no need to speak aloud. He was very curious about the new person they had met, Kai. Master Yen Sid and King Mickey had explained about the Dive into the Heart, once Riku had become a Master. Everyone, before they can wield the Keyblade, has a “dream”. The dream is the person diving into their own heart. Everyone hears the voice of their keyblade, and once they’ve experienced the dive, they can work toward summoning it.  
It seemed a very common experience to see several platforms, and to choose from a sword, shield, and staff. King MIckey theorized that this the Keyblade getting a form, and deciding how it would help you progress as you learned to use it.  
After everything that Riku had learned, he was beginning to wonder about something, he was just putting it into words, and intended to ask the other two Masters about it, but he had to stay focused on Kai, first.  
It had been explained that Keyblade Masters could pass on the Keyblade with a ceremony. Riku vaguely remembered meeting a man, a long time ago, and thought that he must have inherited it that way. But, there were other ways to inherit it. Everyone was sure Sora had never had an Inheritance Ceremony, and nobody was sure how Kairi had gotten hers. King MIckey had inherited his from Master Yen Sid. So, how did Kai get his?  
Riku looked out the window of the train to see the stars passing by. He was almost at the tower. He waited for the train to stop, and then stepped out onto the piece of land around the tower.  
He walked quickly, wanting to be quick, but not in any mood to run. He climbed to flights of stairs to find only Master Yen Sid in the tower’s top room.   
“Is there a problem, Riku?” the Master asked.  
“I think… I found another Keyblade Wielder.”  
Master Yen Sid hesitated and then turned slowly to face Riku. “How do you know?”  
“He was knocked out fighting a Heartless, and I think he had the Dive.”  
Master Yen Sid nodded slowly. He hesitated again before speaking. Riku appreciated how slowly and deliberately the Master did things, it meant that everything that he said would be carefully thought out. Riku had acted rashly so many times, he was glad that there was a person that acted the way the Master did.  
“Tell me everything that happened after you met this person.”  
Riku explained everything that had happened. He did his best not to leave anything out, but he wasn’t sure what detail the Master was looking for. It didn’t take long. Riku felt like it had been a long time, but after he ran through the story, he realized not much had happened. It had felt like a year, but he couldn’t have been gone for more than a couple hours.  
After Riku had finished explaining, the Master looked him in the eye with a serious gaze and asked, “Did he ever touch the handle of your Keyblade while you were holding it?”  
Riku was surprised by the question, but immediately realized what the Master was getting at. “He did, when he stopped me from running toward the Heartless. Does that count as the Inheritance Ceremony? I didn’t say the words.”  
Master Yen Sid shook his head. “The words are for the Ceremony. But, passing on the Keyblade requires just the act of taking it from a Master. If he dove into his heart already, he will soon be able to summon his own. We still need two Guardians of the Light. He should be brought here so we can see if he is one of them.”  
Riku shook his head. “He already refused to come here.”  
“Then, you, as a Keyblade Master, will have to test him.”

 

Kai was waiting, rather impatiently, in the courtyard in front of the mansion again. He had already been waiting a while and hated it. He wasn’t a very patient person. He got annoyed and headed out of the gate, when he saw Sora and Kairi headed toward the wall to Twilight Town.  
He really didn’t want to interact with them at all, and then he noticed that Kairi was crying. It was hard to notice at first, because she was so far away, but he noticed the tears running down her face. She didn’t even make noise, she had a blank face, but with tears streaming down her face.   
Kai considered saying something, but then Sora came running out of the forest from the same direction Kairi had come from.  
“Kairi! Wait!” Sora called after her.  
Kai backed into the garden quickly before they could see him. He hid, but still peaked around the gate’s opening. He might not want to talk to them, but he still wanted to know what was going on. Sora didn’t seem like the kind to do anything too bad, but why else would Kairi be crying.  
“Kairi!” Sora called as he caught up to her. He almost put his hand on her shoulder, but she turned just before he got to her, and he pulled his hand back.  
“No, Sora. I just… I don’t want to wait anymore.” She started to walk away, but then she turned around again. “Don’t… don’t follow me.”  
Sora stayed still while Kairi stormed away. She had been gone for about a minute before Sora fell to his knees. Kai couldn’t imagine what could possibly have happened. Anything that Kai could think of wouldn’t have elicited the response that Kairi gave.  
“Well, well,” a voice from nowhere said. Kai heard a weird rushing sound, like air rushing passed his ears, but from the other side of the brick wall he was looking around. “You clearly aren’t perfect.”  
Sora jumped up to his feet. His face was set in anger, like what had happened with Kairi hadn’t happened at all. Was he heartless, or was he just that simpleminded?  
Sora summoned the Keyblade in a flash of light.  
Kai froze, his heart skipped a beat. How did he know what it was called? He knew he was right, he knew the sword was called a Keyblade. But, he had never heard the word before. How did he know?  
Kai didn’t have much time to worry about that, he forced it out of his head as the figure stepped away from the wall. He wore only a long black cloak with a hood, the hood wasn’t around his head, his long white hair fell passed his shoulders, that was all Kai could see, but it was obvious Sora was ready to fight him.  
“But, that’s okay. You can still be a vessel of Darkness. Give in to that Darkness, Sora.”  
What the hell was going on? Kai didn’t understand, but he didn’t think that he would be able to do anything, either, so he just waited.  
“Never!” Sora shouted. He rushed the figure and made a swipe with his Keyblade.  
The figure threw out his arm, pointing his palm toward Sora, and a ball of swirling black and dark purple appeared in his palm, and then shot toward Sora. When it hit, Sora yelled in pain, and fell backwards, landing a few feet behind where he had been hit.  
Kai wanted to help Sora, liked Sora and the others had helped him, but he didn’t have any way of helping. He could try and fight this guy, but he had some weird kind of magic that made it Sora couldn’t even get close.   
Then, Kai remembered that Riku was coming back. No way in hell Kai could do anything to this guy, but Sora and Riku together could probably do something. Kai couldn’t help much, but maybe he could stall until Riku got there.  
He owed them, this would make them even.  
“Hey! Leave him alone!” Kai said as he picked up his sword and stepped out from behind the wall.  
The figure turned toward him. His eyes were a gold-orange color, and something about it scared Kai to his core, but it also comforted him in a way. Kai’s confusion clouded his mind for nearly a second before he pushed it aside. He owed Sora, and he was going to focus on that.  
“Another Keyblade Wielder. This one would make an even better vessel than you, Sora.”   
Kai didn’t understand what this guy was talking about, but he didn’t care. “Whatever, just go away.”  
The guy faced his palm toward Kai and he felt a huge tug from the left side of his chest. There was a dull pain, but the main problem was that Kai fell to his knees.   
The guy spoke again. “How would you like to try to bring balance to the World? Visit every world in existence? Be a part of something much greater?”  
Kai lowered his sword. What was this guy talked about seemed like a good idea. Sora didn’t know much about Sora and the others, nor did he know what this new guy had to do with anything, but he did owe Sora. Maybe he could pay them back without having to fight this guy.  
“I’ll make you a deal,” Kai ventured.  
The guy kept his face blank, but he seemed to stop paying attention to Sora at that point. His head turned just the slightest bit away from Sora, and Kai noticed.  
“What deal?”  
“No! You can’t make deals with him!” Sora yelled as he stood up. Kai ignored him.  
“I’ll go with you, do whatever you want me to, but you and I both have to leave right now,” Kai insisted.  
“Deal.”  
The wind sound before appeared again and a big swirling black hole about the size of a door appeared a few feet to Kai’s left. “Enter there, and I will be right behind you.”  
Kai was weary of the big door of darkness. But, he owed Sora, and he should at least hear out what this guy had to say. He took a few tentative steps toward the darkness and stepped into it. A wave of cold washed over him as he stepped through.

 

Riku was almost back to where he was supposed to meet Kai, but he never made it. Sora had come running out of the forest, saying that Kai had gone with Xemnas. They had then headed back to the tower. Riku never found out what would happen with him.  
They had spent a normal night at the tower. Sora, Donald, and Goofy left early the next morning. Kairi was upset, apparently she had asked Master Yen Sid if she could leave with Sora, and he had insisted that she stay for more training. She was so angry, she had disappeared, Riku hadn’t seen her since. Riku hoped that she would be okay, and he was sure time with Master Yen Sid would make her feel better. She was a really determined, strong person.  
Riku had gotten ready and left the next day with the King. They had never actually traveled together for very long. They had ended a journey together, and they had started a journey together, but they always ended up separated. Riku hoped that wouldn’t happen this time.  
He also hoped that it wouldn’t be too long before they could get out of the coats. Riku and the King both wore the same cloaks as the Organization wore. He hadn’t worn his since he had lost his ties to the Darkness, but the King had made him keep it, just in case. And, now they were necessary.  
They were going to have to go to the Realm of Darkness, and the cloaks would protect them from the Darkness. Without them, they could survive, they’d been there before. But, the Darkness ate away at them. Riku had almost not survived the last time. If he hadn’t have ended up in Castle Oblivion, he may have turned into a Heartless.   
The King wore his, too. Riku didn’t think it was quite the same feeling. To King Mickey, it was just a coat. To him, it was a reminder of the time when he had had to give into the Darkness one more time. How he had used Dark powers to travel between worlds, and the cloak had made that possible. He wore it, even when he turned into Xehanort’s Heartless.  
But, this time, it was to save a Keyblade Master from the Realm of Darkness. King Mickey said that Master Aqua would definitely be a Guardian of the Light, and she would know where to find other Keyblade Masters. If she had survived this long, Riku and The King would definitely find her.


	5. Journey

Chapter 5: Journey

 

Kairi wondered if she had waited long enough. She was in a dark room aboard the gummi ship. She had always loved the gummi ships, but was barely allowed to use one at all. She had wanted to drive, but that wasn’t going to happen this time. She had had to stow away. There was no way she was staying behind again. The only time she had traveled between the worlds like Sora and Riku did was when Sora had had her heart, she hadn’t even really been conscious. It wasn’t fair. She wasn’t missing out again.  
After Yen Sid had said that she was staying, she had hid inside Sora’s ship. She was going to leave once it was too late to take her right back, and she would only get on again when Sora promised she could go with him. She didn’t care about being a Keyblade Master, she could use the Keyblade, the rest didn’t matter to her.  
She considered that she had probably waited long enough, so she left the room. The gummi ship was empty. Kairi made sure to check the bedrooms and the cockpit before leaving. She marveled, as always, at how large the gummi ship actually was.  
Kairi stepped out of the ship and out into a new world. She expected something new, something exciting and novel. She wanted to see something that she had never thought that she would ever see. Instead, she had fleeting memories, brief flashes of seeing something before.  
She walked out into a huge courtyard, in front of a large castle. The castle was so familiar that it hurt. She knew this place. She hadn’t been anywhere except for Destiny Islands and Yen Sid’s castle and Twilight Town, she couldn’t have seen any of this stuff, unless… Was she at the place where she had lived before? Was this the place that she had lived as a little girl?  
She didn’t plan on doing it, her body acted on its own. She just saw the castle doors coming closer and closer until she was pressing her hands against them. She didn’t particularly remember anything, but she knew that it took two people to open them, and the people who opened it twelve years ago were a lot bigger than she was.  
“Hey!” A voice yelled.  
Kairi jumped and turned around to see a boy walking toward her. The boy was a couple years older than her, wearing a long white lab coat, with long purple hair covering half his face. For a couple seconds, Kairi stood frozen, afraid that she’d be in trouble, and then she recognized the face, the hair, she knew who this was.  
“Ienzo!” she yelled. She ran over to him and threw her arms around his neck.  
She got a rush of memories when she touched him, when they were little kids, and she played with him over at his house a lot. She also remembered playing inside the castle right next to them. Kairi couldn’t remember exactly what happened, but her parents and his had disappeared at about the same time. Ansem the Wise had adopted Ienzo and took care of him in the castle, her grandmother had lived there, too. So, they never spent very much time apart, except for when some man she didn’t know would take him away, but never for an entire day.  
“I’m sorry, miss, but I do not recall who you are. If this is some clever ruse to attempt to gain entrance to the castle, I can assure you that your efforts will be in vain,” the man said, awkwardly leaning back a little from the hug, seeming a little uncomfortable.  
Kairi stepped back and let go of him. She hadn’t remembered him at first, so it didn’t bother her too much that he didn’t remember her. She just smiled, still happy that she had found an old friend.  
“I’m Kairi, we knew each other when we were kids. We played here, right?”  
Ienzo looked mildly confused for a few seconds, and then he squinted with his visible eye, and then gasped. He felt to one knee and kept his head turned down toward the ground. “My apologies, my princess! You’ve been gone so long, everyone assumed you were taken by the Heartless when the world was destroyed!”  
“I just went somewhere else,” she explained. She wasn’t quite sure why he was kneeling or calling her princess, but she assumed he would stand up again eventually. When he didn’t, she mumbled out a quick, “You can stand up, now.”  
“Of course! You should be inside! There are still Heartless in Radiant Garden! You need to be where it is safe! You should return to your home.”  
Ienzo rushed to the doors, he was clearly stronger than he looked, because he pulled them open on his own, just enough for the two of them to pass between the doors. But still, it was impressive. Ienzo motioned for her to pass inside, and she did, walking into a very large entry room, a familiar one.  
The room that she walked into was the same place that Sora had turned back into himself after being a Heartless. She remembered it all perfectly, and she didn’t want to, because it reminded her of the cave in Twilight Town.  
She had made her move, and thought that something was finally going to happen, but Sora refused, saying they were too young, and that he wasn’t ready. That’s what he always said, and she didn’t feel like waiting anymore.  
“Are you feeling well, Princess?” Ienzo asked from behind her.  
She turned to him and smiled. “Yes, I’m fine.”

 

Kai lay on the bed that he had been given. The room was bare, except for the one piece of furniture. He had been with Xemnas for three days. It was all about bringing out the Darkness in himself with Xemnas. It was training to use Darkness over and over. Every time Xemnas made him fight Heartless, he could feel the Darkness inside him eating away at himself.  
He had finally managed to summon his Keyblade that day. It looked just like the one that he had had in his dream, it was fighting against itself the entire time. He managed to fight the Heartless off. Xemnas had let him return to his room earlier than usual as reward.  
The entire time Kai had been in his room, he’d been focusing on manipulating the Darkness inside him. He had seen Xemnas using Darkness to create portals that he used to travel around. Kai was trying to open one of those portals.  
He had paid Sora back by leaving with Xemnas, but that didn’t mean that he had to stick around. Xemnas had taught him about the Keyblade and what power he would have now, he also said that Kai would play his part in the new Keyblade War, but Kai never quite understood what that meant. Either way, he had no interest in being any part of that. He wanted to learn what Xemnas had to teach him, and then he’d leave. So, as soon as he could open the portal, he would leave.  
He kept focusing, insisting that the Darkness obey him, forcing it to listen to him and open a portal back to Twilight Town. But, like always, nothing was happening. He could feel that Darkness inside him, but it wasn’t enough. He had opened himself to it, but it wasn’t enough. The only time it ever grew was when he was being attacked by the Heartless. Kai wanted more strength, more power, and he wasn’t sure how he was going to be able to achieve it, he couldn’t build the Darkness on his own.  
Kai had an idea. He thought it out, carefully weighing the idea. He could fight the Heartless again, just enough to gain more control over the Darkness. He would have to get hurt just enough, but not enough to be in danger. It would have to be without Xemnas, so if he left now, it would be the perfect time.  
Kai slipped off the bed and crossed to the door that opened as he approached it. The corridors were all empty, as was most of the castle, but that worked in Kai’s favor. There were a few people there besides Xemnas, and Kai wanted to avoid them all.  
He had never tried to move through the castle on his own before. He was as quiet as he could possibly be, he peeked around corners to make sure he wouldn’t be seen, and stopped to listen any time he thought he heard a sound. There was nothing though, and he never ran into anyone.  
He snuck out of the castle, and made it into the city. The Heartless avoided the area immediately around the castle. So, Kai headed away into the center of the city. The neon lights from the buildings were plenty of light for him to see. There was a light rain, as there always was in the World That Never Was, but the clouds avoided the castle, as well. Kai never thought to ask why, but he would have liked to know.  
He had ventured pretty far into the city, and hadn’t seen a single Heartless. He turned around, looking for them, and nearly fell over. He hadn’t seen them, because they had been amassing behind him.  
Xemnas had had Kai practice on shadows and soldiers mostly, why Xemnas had named the Heartless, Kai would never understand. But, these Heartless were clearly different, they looked like adult versions of the shadows. They were much larger, their bodies thinner, their limbs much longer with pointed fingers instead of just claws, and antennae that trailed all the way to the ground. Kai was sure they were somehow related to the shadows, because as Kai watched them, some of them collapsed onto themselves and crawled along the ground, like the shadows did. They became shadows themselves, which made them invulnerable until they came back up. Kai hated that, he always wrote them off while they were shadows, and they almost always surprised him.  
Kai summoned his Keyblade and stood ready. There were at least a hundred of these strange Heartless, and Kai doubted that he would be able to fight even half of them off, but he didn’t need to, he just needed to be hurt enough that he could use the Darkness to get away. He hoped that’s how it would work out, he hadn’t anticipated so many of them showing up at once.  
They stayed in their group for a few seconds after Kai turned around, and then all at once, they charged. Kai tried to stand his ground, but he couldn’t do it. Right before they reached him, he hurled his Keyblade into the charging mass and dove to the side so they wouldn’t all hit him at once. He rolled and stood up as quickly as he could. He summoned the Keyblade again and knocked one of the Heartless aside.  
These Heartless were not as soft as the others. These were harder even than the soldiers. Slamming the Keyblade into that one had felt almost like he had tried to attack one of the buildings around him. He was afraid that this would go very badly very quickly.  
He gripped his sword with both hands, hoping the extra strength would make the fight easier, but he was so used to fighting with one hand that it just made him feel awkward. He got two more hits in, but they were not any more effective than before.  
He felt claws digging into his back. But, this time was so much more intense than every other time he’d been attacked. When the shadows clawed at him, he felt the claws and that was it, like a large cat had scratched him. These Heartless were different. The claws left a cold feeling that spread inside the wound and chilled him to his core. The other Heartless were beings of Darkness, and they could do harm, these Heartless infected him with Darkness when they attacked.  
Kai had made a huge mistake. He had gone from fighting ants to fighting giants without knowing it. He was certain he was going to die.  
He removed his second hand from the Keyblade and swung hard at the one that he hurt him. This one finally destroyed one, the Heartless disappeared in the puff of Darkness that Kai was used to, and left him with only ninety-nine more to go.  
The Heartless never seemed to realize that one of their members was gone, but they didn’t need any extra encouraging to be able to overwhelm Kai. The Heartless had just finished fading when another clawed Kai’s chest. The pain was so intense that Kai cried out, fell to his knees and dropped the Keyblade.  
He could feel the Darkness spreading inside him, he knew the Heartless were circling him and that he had to get out of this somehow, and very quickly or he would become one of them. He could not run, and he doubted that he would be able to fight anymore. His last hope was that he might be able to finally summon the Dark Corridor.  
The damage from the Heartless wasn’t a lot, but he hoped it was enough. His right hand was clutching the bleeding wound on his chest, so he stuck out his left, trying to force the Dark portal into existence. Nothing happened.  
Kai tried with every bit of his willpower to make something, anything happen. But, he didn’t have sufficient hold over the Darkness yet. He was sure he was going to die.  
And then, two things happened at once. The Heartless attacked him again. Claws raked down his back, some of them crossing over the first attack which caused immeasurable pain. But, at that same moment, the portal opened. Kai saw the swirling black door grow out of the ground, and stay where his palm had been pointing.  
He didn’t even think. He just pushed off the ground and ran. He felt the claws rake him several more times as he ran, but he ignored the pain, mainly with the adrenaline of his impending death and the thrill of finally opening the portal. He was already weak, though. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to get through the door before he collapsed. He could feel his legs shaking beneath him. He was running as hard as he could and barely getting any closer.  
Finally, he was almost at the portal and one of the Heartless jumped in front of him and pulled back it’s hand, ready to strike. Kai’s hand moved on it’s own. The Keyblade appeared in his hand, he swung at the Heartless’s hand, not the Heartless itself, blocking the blow. Kai then jumped toward the portal. He hit the ground hard, but it was just inside the portal. The door behind him disappeared and Kai let his eyes fall closed.


End file.
